Our life living off the land in our log cabin, breathing fresh mountain air, and getting back to basics.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

News from the Cabin...Bobcat & Coyote?

While I have been visiting my girls and Liam, and taking care of some things around here, Mountain Man has been busy at the cabin. Among many things, he's been clearing the garden plot of the remaining rocks and roots so that when I return we can plant all our seedlings, which he says are growing like weeds, ha ha.

Johny called me a few days ago all excited. He had put his trail cam (an infrared camera) up in the newly cleared garden plot to see if he could capture photos of any wildlife there. He puts his trail cam up every night, but so far, besides a chipmunk, squirrel or some other small animal, nothing big has been photographed. But kowabunga, the garden plot is a goldmine (wishful thinking)! We aren't sure if these animals were in this same area prior to clearing the plot, or perhaps now that there is a clearing, the wildlife is more attracted to it (not logical to me, but hey, I'm not a wild animal, LOL!). Every night, pictures of them...we believe a Coyote and a Bobcat)...though we aren't positive of our identification of them, so please let me know if you know what these are.

Pretty sure this is a Coyote, you can see our bear (4'w x 3'h, wooden bear our neighbor Ron gave us) in the left center of the photo to give you an idea of it's size...

This is definitely a mountain cat, we think a Bobcat. We have heard the sound it makes in the middle of the night, like a screaming woman or crying baby. It is a frightening sound, no doubt about that. So we know we do have Bobcats out there...just not sure if that is what this is. Once again, our bear is left center of the photo.

I think this may be the same cat, but the stripes on the hind legs don't seem to be as prominent, though this is a different angle.

It's exciting to know we have this wildlife on our property, no matter what they turn out to be. Like our own log cabin wild kingdom!

If you have any ideas what these may be, please leave me a comment. I'll post more photos once I return there and we continue in our identification.

About Me

There are moments in life when you are reminded of how precious every moment is, and how important it is to love what you live. A favorite quote by Mark Twain “twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones that you did” was posted in my office. Following several undesirable events occurring in my life recently, most significantly my younger brother passing away unexpectedly, I knew it was time to “sail away from the safe harbor” (more of the same quote).
So my retired husband (best friend/confidant/Mountain Man) and I decided we wanted to go to the place we loved most, our log cabin in the Smoky Mountains, and “live off the land”. Time to…Simplify…Explore…Appreciate…Discover…Learn… Grow…
So I resigned from my job and here we are. I am recording the adventure in this blog. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I know I will.